dinosaur_homefandomcom-20200214-history
History of Dinosaur Home
This is an article describing the history of Dinosaur Home. Early Days Dinosaur Home ''was made by a group of administrators, particularly [[admin|'admin']] and [[jade|'jade']], in 2006, along with many other sites. It got its first discussions in the General Discussions Forum in November 2006 when [[Anenlylok|'Anenlylok']] asked for a place where he could study paleontology. 'The''' First Users The first users on Dinosaur Home consisted mainly of members and guests from all over the United States. Sometimes the members came and went; other times they stayed for a while. Avatars were not used at Dinosaur Home in 2006. The earliest known avatar being used was in 2007 when a guest named [[Kenobi|'Kenobi']] joined the site and used one of the example avatars shown as his. 2008-2009 (Early-Middle Years) As Dinosaur Home became more popular, it gained more members, and some of those stayed. The founders added more features. They made an ability for the members to create avatars, or pictures that represent the member. Emoticons were later created for members and guests to express their feelings in their comments and forum posts. More members joined and achieved more ranks. Member shields were introduced. Soon, the website was more advanced. As the website became more known, new members and guests came. Some of the members that stayed and commented the most were [[kenobi|'kenobi']], [[tyler keenan|'tyler' keenan]], [[Raptor Lewis|'Raptor' Lewis]], and more. Soon, the website got on its feet, and evolved year by year to make what it had and has been. 2009-2011 (Activity Boom) Dinosaur Home was a mostly mellow place in the years of 2009-2011. Many major members joined, like [[Random Scientist Inc.|'Random Scientist Inc.']], [[JSpencer|'JSpencer']], [[HitBear|'HitBear']], [[rickymouse|'rickymouse']], [[Tarheel59|'Tarheel59']], [[CBulla|'CBulla']], and many more. It experienced few problems except for [[Andrewtherium/sscaero/sscaero15|'sscaero']], its first troll. 'sscaero15' sscaero15 was a hacker that made himself a moderator and started deleting other people's posts, and gave dislikes to JSpencer, rickymouse, tyler keenan, and Raptor Lewis. Many people disliked sscaero, and gave him many reports. Finally, sscaero was banned from the website. Dinosaur Home then went back to normal. 2011- Spring 2012 Dinosaur Home saw many members come and go in 2011 and early 2012. Raptor Lewis, tyler keenan, [[Dazza|'Dazza']], and others left, while JSpencer, Random Scientist Inc., rickymouse, Red Clay, HitBear, and others stayed. [[tzavecz|'tzavecz']] was a member who came. 2012 "Second Growth Age" In 2012, Dinosaur Home saw more members as well as guests. tzavecz came around the new year. Guests such as [[JMD|'JMD']] and [[Ceolophysis|'coelophysis']] came in the Spring. ceolophysis was present throughout the whole year, while JMD left for Topix in the summer. JMD came back in late September. Random Scientist Inc., tzavecz, Tarheel59, and HitBear were prominent posters in the summer. Fossil Identification threads became more popular in 2012. 'Autumn' JMD came back as JMD577 in September as he was furious with the trolls at Topix. The trolls followed him, however, and caused him some problems. [[Red Clay|'Red' Clay]] asked JMD to become a member, and so he did. One day after, though, trolls attacked him and then a "flame war" started between JMD and these trolls. Moderators banned the trolls quickly, and JMD apologized for that drama. After that, more members came, including [[steveculbreth|'steveculbreth']], [[rock hound|'rock' hound]], [[Asoka|'Asoka']] (later Benjamin Schmidt), and [[THunt|'THunt']]. Most stayed permanently, but THunt left a month after joining. However, THunt was very active before. [[Neo|'Neo']], a guest, started arguing with JMD on the Giganotosaurus vs T-Rex thread. It soon became a quarrel, but was moderated eventually. On 24 December 2012, JMD (as JMDAWC) created the Dinosaur Home Wiki. Tarheel59 left in November, and [[XDMarilyn|'The XDMarilyn' ]]came around the New Year 2013, and rickymouse, [[Ramin|'Ramin']], and CBulla sometimes came back to visit in 2012. January-July 2013 In the first half of 2013, many things happened. The XDMarylin came at New Year's. Benjamin Schmidt, rock hound, JMD, JSpencer, Random Scientist Inc., and Red Clay were prominent posters. In the turn of February, JMD made a comment which Red Clay and JSpencer took offense at. JMD was banned because of this (and being underage) in late April. Other than this, Dinosaur Home remained the same. July- December 2013 Dinosaur Home saw many members come and some members got inactive. JMD in July pleaded for a forgiving unban, and he got it. In the summer, the thread "Who would win in a battle Giganotosaurus vs T-Rex?" got very active and produced more guests and members. [[Donald Frost|'Donald' Frost]] and [[Oxford University M.r Johan09001830|'Oxford' University M.r Johan09001830]] were some guests, and Oxford University M.r Johan 09001830 became Dino expert1 later on. HitBear, Benjamin Schmidt, and rock hound were some members that became fairly inactive. Dino expert1 later became a problem as he used offensive language, created multiple accounts, and gave dislikes to many respected members. Reports were given by tzavecz (who reported Oxford University M.r Johan090018300) and JMD (who reported Dino expert1.) In the fall, more members such as [[Paleontologist Dr. Rex|'Paleontologist' Dr. Rex]] and [[Dinosaurus rex|'Dinosaurus' rex]] (who came from Topix) joined. Dinosaur Home's "Age of the Younger Generation": Nov. 2013 - May 2018 It is fitting to call the period from November 2013 to the present day the "Age of the Younger Generation" because Dinosaur Home has been seeing more and more young users arriving, and making up most of Dinosaur Home's activity. Even though Dinosaur Home has had high-school-aged users before, namely Fossil Lover Ian, Raptor Lewis, and Random Scientist Inc. arriving in 2010-2011, and the then middle-schooler JMD arriving in 2012, the activity of younger users has obviously been rising much more since late 2013. The term "younger users" here is referring to users aging 11-25 years. As the activity of younger users is rising, Dinosaur Home is seeing the activity of 40-70-year-old users decline somewhat. However, this does not mean that generation is leaving. November 2013 - March 2014 In the new year 2014, Dinosaur Home saw more young users posting. JMD, Dinosaurus rex, and Paleontologist Dr. Rex, all 13-15-year-olds at the time, had been very active. tzavecz, JSpencer, and [[Vale|'Vale']] also posted, but not as much as the previous three. In January through March, Random Scientist Inc. had been posting more actively since 2013. [[Gian94|'Gian94']], one with many dinosaur questions, had also arrived and posted. Gian94, JMD, and Dinosaurus rex seemed to be most active as well as tzavecz, Random Scientist Inc., and JSpencer. ceolophysis posted from time to time but was not as active. March 2014 - November 2014 As March began, new users arrived and some became inactive. [[dinobird|'dinobird']] joined during this time and had been doing debates with ceolophysis. JSpencer became somewhat inactive. New members like dinobird, [[T.REX|'T.REX']], [[Dinosir|'Dinosir']], [[bigtooth|'bigtooth']] and Starman joined and proceeded to make many contributions since then. Those members, and also Dinosaurus rex, dinobird, and [[Kman|'Kman']], had been the ones making the Weekly Top[[Top Contributors List| Contributors List]]. In early May 2014, art depicting prehistory seemed to be more talked about, with not only SaMeeR making pictures but many others as well, including dinobird, Dinosaurus rex, Dinosir, Kman, bigtooth, and JMD, expressing interest in doing sketches of those scenes. On May 26th, JMD and Dinosir edited the Dinosaur Home Wiki dramatically in order to make it more appealing. The next day, bigtooth was banned after both a series of accumulated events, and an offensive comment regarding the supposed departure of SaMeeR, a long-term contributor who had expressed an interest in leaving the site. However, a week later, SaMeeR decided to stay, to the relief of other members. As June began, Dinosaur Home seemed to be changing. "Paleoart", as the recent prehistory sketches are now called, seemed to be widely talked about and was then a hub of activity, but months later in September activity from there started to cease. However, another new form of activity on Dinosaur Home began during this period- as well as posting about Who vs Who on its main forum, users began to incorporate Who vs Who topics into their blogs- most notably starting with Paleontologist Dr. Rex. Other users started this trend too, and this form of Who vs Who became popular. Kman, dinobird, Dinosir, Dinosaurus rex, and JMD seemed to be the busiest posters on the site. ceolophysis had still been posting about his theories on dinosaur-crocodile evolution, and had not personally changed ever since he made his first post years ago. In mid-June, JMD started becoming aggressive towards some Who vs Who threads concerning animals that never met, believing that the threads violated Community Rule #3. He had been reporting just about anyone who had been debating on those threads, and never had such a large reporting streak before. While some members seemed to agree that some of those posters have been trolling, they did not agree that the threads should not be argued on. Much of this had been happening since JMD's first statement about the threads, until the matter was finally settled on 21 July 2014 when JMD realized that Dinosaur Home is fine with the threads he had put into question. Trolls seemed to be more frequent, but were rarely a problem and this concern seems to have died down since the start of September. JMD, dinobird, and Dinosaurus rex had been reporting every one of them when the trolls and spammers occasionally appeared. It has been suggested by Dinosir, JMD, and others that the option of guests should disappear, and the thread concerning that issue sometimes got discussed on. One troll/fanboy, who was banned in late August, was ApexPredator9. He came in August 2014, and was often considered a Spinosaurus fanboy. Bigtooth came back on 17 August 2014 as a member called "Bigtooth267." However, in September, Bigtooth267 was banned when he changed his name to "Bigtooth.", and moderators believed this was the old bigtooth. However, Bigtooth got his old, yet banned profile "Bigtooth" back soon afterward. Bigtooth enjoyed posting on his old account, but after he made an offensive comment in early October he was banned for the third time. Plans have been made to stop Bigtooth from coming back for good, no matter what excuse he uses. Bigtooth's wild history of coming, being banned, coming back and being banned again, and then the same two steps repeating is probably the most extraordinary of any member. "Activity Low Tide": mid-October 2014 to May 2015 In October, three new prominent members joined- [[AreXenosDinos?|'AreXenosDinos'?]], [http://www.dinosaurhome.com/members/lord-of-the-spinosaurs/ Lord of the Spinosaurs], and [[Souppedy Doup|'Soup']]. Soup re-introduced "dinosaur stories" to the site, and tzavecz applauded these, saying that it is a good way of learning and may be better than Who vs Who threads for learning about the lives of dinosaurs. The likes of [[velociraptors rule|'velociraptors' rule]], OMEGANAVIE, and [[Monster_Resurrected|'monster' resurrected]] posted again in October/November 2014. After bigtooth was banned for the third and possibly final time in a row, Dinosaur Home became quieter. October was still a month in which Dinosaur Home saw much activity, but when that month transitioned into November, Dinosaur Home seemed to enter an activity "low tide", where the website seemed to get about 15 posts in a day compared to previous spikes of perhaps 30 or so. This "activity low tide" had continued for seven months. The members who posted the most were generally Soup, [[Theropod|'Theropod']], Starman, Kman, and [[Klonke|'Klonke']]. The likes of JMD and Dinosaurus rex also posted somewhat during the day or night. Spinosaurus75 also came and contributed somewhat to Dinosaur Home's activity. In December 2014, [[notjustrox|'notjustrox']] appeared, spreading his claims that many things he or other members found were spectacular things such as ankylosaur clubs, other dinosaur fossils, or even human corpses. He had a generally negative reputation among most of Dinosaur Home because of this, and many members tried to crush his pseudoscience. notjustrox would sometimes insult or swear at those who challenged his beliefs (which got him reported once) but this would be stopped later. Nonetheless, some members were eager to see him banned if he broke a rule one more time. On April 10, 2015, JMD announced that he would be leaving Dinosaur Home and its Wiki alike by the 16th of that month. May 2015 - September 2016 In mid-April 2015, JMD decided to leave- however, this leave only lasted a little more than 40 days. New members and guests joined Dinosaur Home during this time, new activity sprung up, and the threads and blogs seemed a little more diverse than before. This encouraged JMD to return. Thus, Dinosaur Home came out of its "activity low tide". Many new and interesting members came to Dinosaur Home, such as Zizabeth Rex, Hooke, and [[CurryMan21|'CurryMan21']]. CurryMan21 has made a blog series called "Prehistoric Arena", while Hooke has made his own series, a story called "Ralph the Triceratops". Zizabeth Rex has not made many blog posts, but people enjoyed having her on the website. Zizabeth Rex was banned only a month after she came, though, due to her being underage. Not many people on Dinosaur Home liked this move, and JMD even suggested that the "Under 13" rule should be dropped. He tried to negotiate an "unban" with administrators, but was unsuccessful. Since September 2015, Dinosaur Home had not been varied in its topics and thus leading to less activity from some members. Apart from fossil identification threads, one of the only sources of activity from December 2015 to August 2016 seemed to be the off-topic [[Dinosaur Wall|''Dinosaur'' Wall]]. In early October 2015 Klonke was banned, and some users didn't like this move. As of April 2016, fossil/rock identification threads seemed to make up 70% of the activity on Dinosaur Home, with the other 30 percent being 7% offtopic and 23% discussions about prehistoric topics. In 2016, more members joined, [[Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan|'Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan']] and [[SpinosaurKing30|'SpinosaurKing30']]. Soup's "n" Dino Story suggestion became more active by the two new members after Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan's blog post of tribute for T.A.P. T.REX then became inactive like JSpencer before, however, unlike JSpencer, his name vanished from the Top Contributors List. Vale started the [http://dinosaur-home.wikia.com/wiki/Blog_of_the_Month Blog of the Month] competition in April. Soon, sam was unbanned. [[Herrerasaurus fish|'Herrerasaurus' fish]] came on the post regarding sam. Sam appeared too, and they started telling each other to be banned. Random Scientist Inc. and Tzavecz found out their IPs were exactly the same. Sam and Herrerasaurus fish were banned again on the same day. Kman, Random Scientist Inc. and tzavecz suggests he is only playing games with different usernames and if he really wants to contribute he should register. A possible explanation for sam and other banned guests' constant reappearance is that when a guest is banned on Dinosaur Home, he/she is allowed to post once again a few months later and so they find their way back onto the forum. Tzavecz has suggested that guest IPs should be banned permanently just like members are if they are banned. "Age of Professionalism": September 2016 - May 2018 As Dinosaur Home transitioned into September 2016, the environment began to change. Members that were making up the most activity before began to give way to the members [[Carnoferox|'Carnoferox']] and [[Torvosaurus i.|'Torvosaurus i.']] Carnoferox, starman, and JMD quickly became the top three contributors on Dinosaur Home. A new source of activity on Dinosaur Home was the Trivia questions, for which a new category was made in late May 2016. When the new top contributors started to emerge in August and September, these threads started to replace the Dinosaur Wall as the prime source of activity apart from fossil identification threads. As of now, the trivia threads are mainly created and answered by Torvosaurus i., Carnoferox, and starman. Dinosaur Home started to look more professional in nature, as hardly anyone apart from those three members seemed to be able to answer the trivia questions on their own. Also, many of the newer blogs started to cite scientific papers and articles as part of their content. It's not known if this is a factor, but starting in August 2016 well-known paleontologists started to visit Dinosaur Home; examples include Nicholas Gardner, David Marjanović, and Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. notjustrox continued to spread his controversial ideas in September and October, and in October Carnoferox and Torvosaurus i. decided to confront him about these ideas. JMD sometimes would also add to their arguments. Carnoferox, Torvosaurus i., and JMD all were hoping for notjustrox to violate a rule so he could be banned (since he had been warned before) so that they didn't have to deal with what they described as his egotistical arguments. They finally got a reason on 18 October as notjustrox used profane language in his debates, and so JMD banned him. See The Notjustrox Controversy for more information. Starting in late April, moderators started to ban those who were spreading pseudoscience. After a discussion launched by Carnoferox, with a few other factors, moderators decided to ban ceolophysis on 30 April. After this, JMD suggested to ban steveculbreth, and this was done the very next day. Therefore Carnoferox suggested a new Community Rule: "Community Rule #22." This rule would say as follows: "Do not post pseudoscientific content. Any posts that lack scientific evidence and are demonstrably false are not allowed." jade refused to make this a Community Rule, but other administrators agreed on a "3-strike guideline" to deal with pseudoscientists on Dinosaur Home. Earlier in April, the first records of Corvidius appeared, and he contributed majorly during the times he pops in. Great Activity Low: August 2017 - January 2018 By mid-August 2017, fewer and fewer posts were starting to be made, for unexplained reasons. Some users, like Spinosaurus75 DinosaurFan, have blamed it on the "professionalism" on Dinosaur Home, for non-contemporary matches and pseudoscience are banned, but this is unconfirmed. The main people making posts from then to November were Carnoferox, Torvosaurus i., and starman. However, by November activity on Dinosaur Home reached a major depression, with one or two posts on average being made every day of ID questions and other posts combined. In November, the main two users were starman and Carnoferox. The great activity low was broken briefly in December 2017, but it soon returned to the November levels and stayed that way for another month. The main posts keeping the forum alive were occasional fossil identification threads. January 2018 - May 2018: "Third Growth Age and Activity High Tide" [[Makayo|'Makayo']] arrived on January 12, 2018, and dramatically increased Dinosaur Home's activity within his first day. As many as 50 posts were now being made per day. Within a week, the activity slowed a little to approximately 30 posts per day, but overall there was a very dramatic increase of activity. Soon after Makayo, on January 20, [[Fauna_Guy|'Fauna_Guy']] arrived and contributed to Dinosaur Home's activity significantly as well. Dinosaur Home has on the whole been revived, and Dinosaurus rex began posting again. Dinosaur Home reached a slight dip in activity in late February, but on March 3, 2018, the members [[TalkingVenison|'TalkingVenison']] and James Long arrived and contributed majorly. There was no sign of Dinosaur Home slowing down as of now. Dinosaur Home was in a state of "activity boom" and with new moderators trolls have disappeared from the forum almost entirely. Spinosaurus75 DinosaurFan sometimes returned to Dinosaur Home, but never posted. April received three new members: Longneckosaurus and [[DinoCoat|'DinoCoat']] and an old member from 2016. DinoCoat has already made the Weekly Top Contributor's list, and likely will become a Top Contributor in a similar matter to TalkingVenison. April increased in activity nearly to the point when Makayo first arrived. Several users such as JMD have begun posting more frequently. On 9 April 2018, JMD announced his temporary departure to finish school, and on 22 April 2018, [[VSauce|'VSauce']] returned under the name VSawsMichalHere and debated with Makayo. On 23rd April 2018, Random Scientist Inc., one of the most respected contributors, officially announced his departure from Dinosaur Home. During JMD's temporary departure two members, [[Tubbiesaurs|'Tubbiesaurs']] and Dinosir, returned to Dinosaur Home on the 27th and 28th respectively. Both were welcomed back as both had been silent for more than a year. Makayo's prediction somewhat came true regarding older members returning, and the activity boom kept stable throughout the first half of May. May 2018 to October 2018: Activity Migration and Decline Throughout May, much of the activity on Dinosaur Home began to "turn over" to The Sub-''Parliament'', [[Souppedy Doup|'Soup']]'s forum, which is a political forum. During May a few of Dinosaur Home's members signed up there, including [[JMD|'JMD']]. Many of the top contributors on Dinosaur Home began posting more on The Sub-Parliament than Dinosaur Home. Thus, Dinosaur Home saw a sharp decline in activity toward the beginning of June whereas The Sub-Parliament saw an activity boom. For example, The Sub-Parliament was able to pull off 100 posts in one day on 31 May, but Dinosaur Home saw only a couple of posts that day. Many members joined ''The Sub-Parliament ''due to the fact that many of them wanted to discuss about other things in addition to paleontology. October 2018 to December 2018: Brief Resurgence In October 2018, it appeared that members such as starman, Carnoferox, Torvosaurus i., Makayo, and SaMeeR were starting to post more on Dinosaur Home again. This prompted JMD to make his first posts since August on 14 October. October passed with moderate activity. In November, Professor Facepalm visited the forum for a few days. Some moderators wanted to ban him, but before a decision was made Professor Facepalm already stopped posting. At the same time, Random Scientist Inc. returned with a new account called "RSInc" and is now semi-active, posting around every week or two. December 2018 to Present In December 2018, Dinosaur Home's activity began to decline again. In the beginning of the month, Soup mysteriously quit for personal reasons This drew criticism from moderators, except for Makayo who was following Soup's instructions. As opposed to other activity declines where fossil ID threads became dominant, this time it seems that there is simply a lack of new ideas for posts. In January 2019, Makayo announced his departure from the site, citing it for his declining interest in paleontology. Several members stopped posting on Dinosaur Home, and the decline in activity has continued for over a year as of 22 January 2020. Towards the end of January 2020 Makayo and Red Clay have been posting more often, and now a new member named Amir has joined in early February.